freeze

I recently reinstalled Microsoft Office 2011 on my new Macbook OS 10.8.5. I did this because I was having issues with Powerpoint. While reinstalling Office didn't solve my Powerpoint issues, it seems to have created issues for Outlook. I restored my Main Identity and recovered my emails just fine, but now I get the spinning ball (freezing) about every 10 seconds, regardless of what I'm doing (typing, sending, reading an email). It's driving me crazy because I can't use my email if every 10 seconds I have to wait 10 seconds to continue typing, clicking on new emails, etc... I've updated all my software. This issue has been going on for 2 days now, so it's not just that Outlook is downloading all my emails again (they should all be there by now). Please help!